


A Value Beyond Pearls

by gnomi



Category: White Collar
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-23
Updated: 2013-10-23
Packaged: 2017-12-30 06:49:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1015460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gnomi/pseuds/gnomi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Was Neal involved in the Rotterdam art heist? What connection might he have to Amsterdam?</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Value Beyond Pearls

**Author's Note:**

> Written to get the story out of my head, since Peter and Neal have been talking in my brain about the Rotterdam heist since I first read about it (though it provides solely the jumping-off point for this story). Forgive any errors, logical leaps that only make sense in my head, OOC-ness, and anything else. Also, the biblical/textual references in this story are to Job 28:12-13, Proverbs 31:1, Job 28:18, and Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) 1:6.

"Don't look at me; I haven't been to Rotterdam in years," Neal said without preamble when Peter met him in front of Federal Plaza on Wednesday morning.

"Feeling defensive?" Peter asked with a smile.

"I have nothing to feel defensive about. You can check my tracking data. I haven't been anywhere near anything resembling Holland or the Netherlands in general unless you count Amsterdam Avenue." Neal paused. "And, yes, I know I was pushing the edge of my radius. But ever since it was re-centered on June's place and arrangements were made for me to be able to go to work and to your place, I've been exploring northward."

"Doing research at Columbia?"

"No, YU." At Peter's look, Neal clarified. "Yeshiva University."

"I know YU," Peter said. "What I don't know is whatever would attract you there. Their museum is near Union Square."

"Ah, but the archives…" Neal said, looking off into the middle distance for just a second or two. "They've got such treasures."

"Should I be warning the local authorities?" Peter asked, mostly joking.

"No need; they know I'm there." 

"You had a run-in with the 3-4?"

"Not at all. I just don't fit the usual profile for the people in that neighborhood, and I didn't want you to get any reactionary phone calls, so I let them know I'd be around campus and not to worry that I was up to anything…untoward."

Peter let that sit there for a minute and then said, "But what are you doing up at YU regularly enough that you'd seem suspicious?" It was a testament the fact that he was no longer regularly checking Neal's tracking data that Peter had no clue how long or how frequently Neal had been going up to Washington Heights. 

"Mostly I've been in Pollack Library. It's a good place to study."

"Study?" Peter was even more confused now.

A light blush started to creep up Neal's neck. "Yeah. I… After the whole submarine fiasco, I got to thinking about things that the Nazis stole, the repatriation of it, and how my expertise might be useful in that endeavor. That line of inquiry brought me to the archives at YU to see what might be known about some of the pieces that still haven't been repatriated. So that's how it started."

"How *what* started?"

"I'm taking classes at Revel." Neal smiled. "Mostly Jewish history, for now."

Peter let that "for now" slide and asked, "Does the graduate admissions office know you never went to college? Or, for that matter, that you didn't finish high school?"

"They honestly don't care. I'm not matriculating; I'm just taking some classes."

"You don't speak Hebrew!" Peter knew he was grasping at inane straws, but he was just trying to figure out the whole thing. 

And Neal had a counterargument. "My *modern* Hebrew is weak. My biblical Hebrew is fluent. Problem is, no one speaks it anymore. Though there are many overlaps." He paused a minute. "And, anyway, what? We'd been working together only a couple of weeks when Ghovat came to town. I wasn't going to tell you anything I didn't have to. 'By the way, I can read the book of Genesis in the original' is not something I say to most people in my life, let alone the guy who had been out to find my weaknesses for so long. Hell, *Mozzie* didn't know until he got a line on some guy selling purported ancient manuscripts. I went along with him to take a look at the manuscripts, and when I found the inconsistencies in the text, I kind of had to tell him everything."

"Am I talking to the future Rabbi Caffrey?"

"*That* would take a considerably greater commitment to Judaism than I am able to make at this point." Neal paused. "The learning, though, is attractive. After all, what's a better investment, art or knowledge?"

"Who's to say you can't have both?" Peter asked.

"True," Neal said. 

"Think of illuminated manuscripts from 15th century Spain." At Neal's surprised look, Peter said, "I know stuff, too."

"'But wisdom -- where will it be found, and where is the place of understanding? No mortal knows its value, and it will not be found in the land of the living,'" Neal said. "Proverbs and Job; women of valor and wisdom."

"Showoff," Peter replied fondly as he led Neal toward the car. "I was with you until the end of that one. But if you ever want a study partner…"

"'Acquire for yourself a friend.'"

"Exactly."

END


End file.
